Pony AI (NASDAQ:PONY) Rating Lowered to “Strong Sell” at Zacks Research

Pony AI (NASDAQ:PONY) was downgraded by equities research analysts at Zacks Research from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report issued on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other research firms also recently issued reports on PONY. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Pony AI in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Pony AI from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, March 22nd. BNP Paribas Exane began coverage on shares of Pony AI in a research report on Thursday. They set a “neutral” rating and a $12.50 target price for the company. CLSA started coverage on shares of Pony AI in a report on Friday, January 2nd. They set an “outperform” rating and a $22.00 target price for the company. Finally, Citigroup reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Pony AI in a research report on Thursday, January 15th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $20.50.

Pony AI Price Performance

Shares of PONY opened at $9.14 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.52 billion, a P/E ratio of -25.39 and a beta of 6.26. Pony AI has a one year low of $4.11 and a one year high of $24.92. The business has a fifty day moving average of $13.40 and a 200 day moving average of $15.71.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. raised its stake in Pony AI by 268.5% during the 3rd quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 836,728 shares of the company’s stock worth $18,818,000 after acquiring an additional 609,666 shares during the period. ARK Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Pony AI in the third quarter worth approximately $28,623,000. Money Concepts Capital Corp bought a new position in shares of Pony AI in the third quarter worth approximately $2,062,000. Carrhae Capital LLP purchased a new stake in shares of Pony AI in the third quarter worth $6,686,000. Finally, Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Pony AI during the 3rd quarter valued at $9,509,000.

Key Pony AI News

Here are the key news stories impacting Pony AI this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Partnership and Europe launch — Pony.ai partnered with Uber and Verne to launch Europe’s first commercial robotaxi service in Zagreb, signaling tangible international commercialization and a new addressable market. Reuters: China’s Pony.ai to more than double robotaxi fleet, debuts in Zagreb
• Positive Sentiment: Operations & revenue growth — The company highlighted steep YoY growth in robotaxi and fare-charging revenues and reiterated a target to scale to ~3,000 robotaxis across 20+ cities this year, supporting longer-term revenue trajectory. GlobeNewswire: PONY AI Inc. Scales with 160% Robotaxi Revenues Growth YoY
• Positive Sentiment: Bullish options flow — Unusually large call buying was reported (27,007 calls), suggesting speculative or hedged bullish positioning by traders shortly after results. (No direct article link available.)
• Neutral Sentiment: New analyst coverage — BNP Paribas Exane initiated coverage with a “neutral” rating and a $12.50 price target, implying upside from current levels but a balanced view on near-term fundamentals. Finviz: Coverage note (BNP Paribas Exane)
• Neutral Sentiment: Earnings call transcripts available — Full Q4/2025 call transcripts were posted (useful for management color on unit economics, expansion cadence and margin targets). InsiderMonkey: Pony AI Q4 2025 Earnings Call Transcript
• Negative Sentiment: Mixed/poor earnings reaction and quality concerns — Market commentary flagged an EPS miss and very weak margin metrics; Proactive noted shares tumbled after the report. Management reported a GAAP net profit largely driven by a $132.5M paper gain on trading securities, which raises questions about recurring profitability and earnings quality. Those factors drove the earlier steep sell-off and are weighing on the stock today. Proactive: Pony.ai shares slide as revenue falls despite robotaxi surge MarketBeat: Pony AI earnings summary and metrics
• Negative Sentiment: High volatility & mixed data — Very high volume, a large beta, and conflicting EPS figures (some sources report a small positive EPS, others a miss) increase short-term uncertainty and likely amplify downward price pressure as investors sort through which numbers to trust. (Background market data and transcripts cited above.)

Pony AI Company Profile

Pony.ai develops autonomous driving technologies for passenger and goods transportation. The company offers an end-to-end self-driving stack that combines perception, planning and control systems with proprietary hardware and software. Pony.ai’s solutions support robotaxi services and advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS) deployments across urban and suburban environments.

Founded in late 2016 by James Peng and Sean Gong, Pony.ai operates research and development centers in Fremont, California, as well as in Guangzhou and Beijing, China.